When asparagus bursts into season, we happily snatch it up--it's as much a pleasure to eat the fresh stalks raw, grilled, or simply blanched with a squeeze of lemon juice or a little melted butter. When you have leftovers from your asparagus binge, the easiest way to use it is to toss it into a green garden salad (or incorporate it into a salad Nicoise), chop it up and use it in an omelet, or tuck it into a pita with other veggies for a refreshing sandwich. But let's take those leftover asparagus to another level.

If you're a pasta lover, eating only spaghetti is akin to a music lover listening to only one band. The wide variety of pasta shapes -- manicotti, rigatoni, angel hair and gnocchi, to name a few -- offers unlimited opportunities for creativity at dinnertime. These lesser-known "indie bands" of pasta are just a quick to prepare as more popular pastas, such as spaghetti and lasagna, and they're just as versatile, too.

You spend all Thanksgiving day stuffing, roasting, basting, peeling, stirring, and mashing. Meanwhile, the family is snacking their way through the football game. Is anyone still hungry by the time you're ready to serve dinner?

Let's face it: to your average holiday reveler, the phrase "vegan dessert" has about as much appeal as, say, "asparagus milkshake." While being a vegan no longer seems to invite the kind of puzzlement and even outright hostility that it once did (like announcing you were a Communist), instead you can often expect a sort of pity, especially around the holidays. After all, the classic holiday treats are, at their essence, all about two fundamental ingredients that even the vegan's fellow traveler -- the vegetarian -- can enjoy without compromise: eggs and butter.

Think of Best Recipes Ever as a little gift from us, our way of saying "thanks" to the half-million fans who've signed up with Recipe.com since we went live two years ago. We hit the magic number -- 500,000 -- only today, and we thought you deserved a little gift. We knew what you'd want: a collection of our Most "Liked" Recipes -- the best of the best, our most popular -- all decided by you, our loyal food-loving fans and happy family of home cooks.

In the classic fairytale, Goldilocks was on a quest to find the perfect bowl of porridge. Here in the real world, as we've learned more and more about the health benefits of eating fish, many of us are on a quest to find the perfect seafood: one that's not too expensive, not unhealthy, but just right. This can sometimes seem like an impossible task.

Eggs are ubiquitous at breakfast, but unlike a scramble or a pair of sunny-side-up eggs, an omelet feels equally at home during the dinner hour, paired with a salad and perhaps a glass of wine. Omelets have a lot going for them: they're economical (what better vehicle for leftovers?), they're easy to make, and perhaps most importantly, you most likely have everything you need to make them on hand.